Chương 50: Fight

Ch 50 - Fight Seeing Evan and Hiroto close the distance, Victor couldn't help but admire their courage, even if it bordered on stupidity. They attacked from opposite sides, their punches and kicks overlapping as they tried to box him in. Victor slipped between them, turning his body just enough to let each strike pass. Evan dropped low and swept toward his legs. Victor vaulted over the attack, only to find Hiroto already reaching into his portal.

Two swords emerged, one remaining in Hiroto's hand while the other spun toward Victor. He tilted his head aside, letting the blade pass close enough to ruffle his hair, only for Evan to catch it cleanly. The two continued without pause. Evan swung for Victor's head while Hiroto struck low at his legs, forcing Victor to shift between their attacks as he gave ground for the first time. Evan produced three magic crystals and threw them.

"Zephiron!" The crystals flared, releasing a roaring cyclone that swept across the stage. Victor planted his feet, but the force caught him before he could brace properly and hurled him into the air.

"Hahaha! Interesting!" Explosions erupted from Victor's hands and feet, breaking his momentum and carrying him safely back toward the stage. He landed lightly, only to find Hiroto already closing in. A sword swept toward his neck, and Victor raised his knife just in time to intercept it with a sharp clang. Hiroto seized his wrist with his free hand, trying to hold him in place. Evan came in from the side, forcing Victor to twist sharply and wrench himself free.

Hiroto's grip slipped, and Evan's strike passed within inches of his face. The two F-ranks gave him no opportunity to recover. One attack followed another from opposite sides, leaving Victor constantly on the move to avoid being cornered. They're skilled, he admitted. Far more skilled than most Awakener brats their age. Given enough time, they might have become truly formidable. Too bad neither of them would live long enough to reach that point.

Victor ducked beneath another slash from Hiroto as Evan pulled out two more magic crystals.

"Ignara! Fulmiron!" Fire and lightning erupted together. Kaboom! A violent explosion engulfed Victor's position, sending heat, smoke, and dust sweeping across the stage. He raised an arm against the blast and disappeared into the haze.

"Trying to use the smoke to fool me?" Victor called out.

"That won't work!" He waited, listening for the slightest movement, but heard nothing. As the haze began to clear, Hiroto appeared several meters away with his sword at the ready. His eyes swept across the stage. Where's Evan? The boy couldn't have fled. Not when they had him cornered. A sudden sense of danger gripped Victor. He twisted aside, but not fast enough. A blade swept through his left hand, severing several fingers before he could escape its path. Evan materialized behind him, sword dripping with blood.

Victor stared at the severed fingers scattered across the stage. For a brief moment, surprise crossed his face. Then his lips curled into a grin.

"Good job." Ring! The one-minute timer rang out.

"But..." Victor said as he lunged forward before Evan could retreat, seizing his right arm in an iron grip.

"You targeted the wrong thing." Boom! A deafening explosion erupted from Evan's arm. Blood sprayed across the stage as his hand and forearm were blasted clean off, the severed limb spinning through the air before slamming onto the bloodstained floor.

"Evan!" A horrified scream rose from the seats. Victor clicked his tongue and looked down at Evan, whose remaining hand clutched the blood-soaked stump of his severed arm.

"You're pretty good with your little tricks," he admitted.

"Too bad you couldn't kill me within a minute." He glanced between the two of them.

"Now then, what should I do with you two? I suppose I could just kill you both, but that seems rather boring. More importantly..." He lifted his mangled hand, wiggling the bloodied fingers that remained.

"I don't appreciate being made a fool of. I'm an A-rank Awakener, even if prison left me a little rusty, yet two F-ranks still managed to chop off my fingers. That's honestly embarrassing."

"Heh." Despite the cold sweat running down his face and the blood pooling beneath him, Evan's lips curled into a grin.

"That's why you should never underestimate those beneath you."

"How annoying." Victor sighed.

"I've never liked smug people." His gaze shifted past Evan toward the academy students as he slowly raised his right hand.

"I won't kill you for this. Instead... I'll kill your friends." The realization hit the student section almost instantly.

"No!"

"Run!"

"Move!" Panic swept through the teens as they scrambled over one another in a desperate attempt to escape. Victor snapped his fingers.... Nothing happened. For a heartbeat, silence hung in the air. Confusion gradually replaced the smugness on Victor's face.

"Surprised?" Evan asked, unable to suppress a chuckle.

"Did you really think I believed the ring was your Artifact? That thing was obviously bait. Your real Artifact was hidden somewhere else." Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Victor instinctively looked toward his right wrist. The bracelet... It was gone. His eyes widened as the answer struck him. Hiroto grabbing his wrist hadn't been an attempt to restrain him at all. The brat had used his spatial ability to steal the Artifact when their hands met.

"And without that little toy boosting your ability," Evan continued, "there's no way you can trigger explosions all the way over there anymore. You've lost your hostages."

"Osborn!" Brooks finally broke free from the guards and landed on the stage with a heavy thud. The instant his boots touched the ground, dozens of earth spikes erupted around Victor in a deadly cage, forcing him to set off explosion after explosion just to blast a path through them. Before the last fragments of shattered stone had even hit the ground, Mehra was already there, her pesh-kabz moving in a blur as she closed the distance and drove Victor backward beneath a relentless storm of slashes.

More guards were already rushing onto the stage while others leveled their guns from below. Victor cast a desperate glance toward the control room where his accomplice should have been waiting, but the foolish hope died almost immediately. I'm on my own. Still dodging Brooks's attacks while parrying Mehra's blades, Victor searched for a way out. Then a deafening crack rolled across the stadium. KRRRSHHH! Everyone looked up as the barrier split apart from its highest point.

The damage spread rapidly across the dome, branching outward until the entire structure collapsed into countless fragments that dissolved into motes of light before reaching the ground. High above the stadium, a lone figure hovered in the sky, enormous wings of shadow unfurling behind him. He dropped from the sky like a meteor, crashing onto the stage and sending cracks racing across its surface. As he rose to his full height, his long coat billowed around him, crimson eyes fixed on Victor.

"You're under arrest," Ryusei said, then shot forward with such speed that Victor barely had time to blink before the enforcer stood directly in front of him. Panic seized Victor as he triggered an explosion, filling the stage with smoke and fire. Ryusei didn't even flinch. His shadow spread across the floor like a living tide, swallowing the stage whole. Victor's vision vanished beneath the shroud. Unable to see his opponent, he fired blindly into the darkness, hoping to catch Ryusei off guard.

Nothing answered him. Then a hand emerged from the shadows and clamped over his face. Victor froze as a pair of crimson eyes appeared inches from his own. He instinctively tried to trigger another explosion, but shadows coiled around his body before he could react, binding his arms, legs, and torso until every movement became impossible. Within moments, Victor was completely restrained.

As the shadows covering the stage receded, Evan blinked against the harsh lights. Once his vision cleared, he spotted Ryusei standing at the center, holding a human-shaped mass of shadow. Victor was completely immobilized within it. When Evan realized the psychopath had been captured, every ounce of tension drained from his body. His legs gave out beneath him, and he collapsed onto the stage. Mehra rushed over, fished a healing potion from her pocket, uncorked it, and promptly shoved the vial into his mouth.

"You reckless fool! What possessed you to challenge that criminal? Do you have any idea how close you came to dying? And don't even get me started on that message you sent us! What if we hadn't seen it in time? What if Chief Shinomiya hadn't made it? You would've thrown your life away for nothing!" Evan had plenty of arguments to defend himself. First, Victor wasn't the same A-rank he had been years ago. After spending so long imprisoned with his mana constantly suppressed, he was nowhere near his prime.

Second, it wasn't as if Evan could've stood by while Hiroto and Reika were being targeted. Damn it, Hiroto was his underling. Evan had spent so much time and effort raising him properly. There was no way he was going to let some lunatic ruin all that hard work. The biggest issue had been figuring out Victor's trick. Aside from his hidden accomplice, Evan was certain the man possessed an Artifact.

Otherwise, there was no way he could've maintained detonation marks for days or spread them across the heavily secured stadium. The ring was an obvious decoy, leaving only one question: where was the real Artifact? Victor's constant protectiveness over his right hand had given him the answer. As for the rest, Evan had always been counting on the adults stepping in eventually. Ryusei had shown up at the perfect moment like some kind of superhero, which admittedly improved Evan's opinion of the man a little. Still…

Destroying that barrier so effortlessly? Was it because Ryusei also practiced Demonic Arts? Was that why breaking it had been so easy? Evan kept those thoughts to himself and glanced toward Brooks, who was tending to Reika. Hiroto was beside her, making sure she was alright, but when their eyes met, Hiroto immediately hurried over. At almost the same time, Carmen came charging in from the opposite direction.

"Evan! Are you—" Hiroto began.

"IDIOT! YOU ABSOLUTE MORON!" Carmen screamed, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"You brain-dead idiot! Aaargh!"

"Hey, don't call me that," Evan protested after Mehra stopped forcing the potion down his throat.

"I only went up there to save Hiroto and Reika."

"Exactly!" Carmen threw her hands into the air.

"I'm surrounded by morons! Reika, Hiroto, and you!" It wasn't like any of them had wanted to end up in that situation. Victor was the one who had targeted them. Granted, Evan had volunteered, but he knew it was only a matter of time before Victor picked him anyway. Challenging the man first had simply given him a chance to tilt things in his favor.

"And you lost your hand!" Carmen yelled, pointing toward a security guard who had carefully wrapped the severed limb in cloth after retrieving it from the stage. Evan glanced over.

"Oh yeah, I did lose it." He tilted his head.

"Do you think they can reattach it?" Seeing how casually he said it only made Carmen clutch her head.

"Aaargh! I hate you!" With Victor captured and the barrier destroyed, the police and Awakeners waiting outside quickly rushed in to evacuate the civilians. Evan, Reika, and the other injured victims were transported to nearby hospitals for treatment. Between the two of them, Evan figured he had gotten the worse end of it. He had lost a hand, after all. Thankfully, his Cry Later skill gave him an absurdly high pain tolerance, allowing him to remain calm as the medical team rushed him into a trauma bay.

His right arm had been wrapped in a compression bandage to stem the bleeding. After being rushed into a trauma bay, a doctor carefully unwound the bloodstained bandage while a Healer stood beside him, her palm glowing with a soft green light as she worked to stabilize the damaged tissue. It was quite the grisly sight once the bandages came off. If this were a video game or television series, the scene would probably have been censored. Evan studied the ragged stump.

Fragments of bone and shredded muscle were all plainly visible.

"So," Evan said, "am I officially an amputee now? Maybe I should start shopping for a prosthetic."

"Stop joking, young man," the Healer scolded before turning to a nurse.

"The hand?" A nurse stepped into the room carrying a sealed preservation container. Wrapped in sterile gauze and kept chilled, Evan's severed forearm had been carefully preserved for reattachment. The Healer examined the limb, letting her magic wash over it for several seconds before letting out a quiet sigh.

"It's still viable... but I can't reattach it. My rank isn't high enough." Evan wasn't surprised. An injury like this would require, at the very least, an A-rank Healer, and he doubted there was one stationed in the Outskirts. Most people would have already been mourning the loss of their hand. Evan, on the other hand, had no intention of saying goodbye to his. Bang! The door slammed open.

"Evan!" Reid shouted, his face taut with panic. Right on time.